Gwent news

Abergavenny parking feud man jailed

A FUNERAL director who poured flour onto a neighbour’s car in an apparent feud over parking was handed a two-week custodial sentence.

Julian Tapping, 39, tipped the powder over Peter Elliot’s Mercedes in Clydach, Monmouthshire, on September 21 last year.

Tapping placed a large bag of gravel in front of the car, roofing tiles behind it and the flour became like “brittle concrete”, Newport Magistrates’ Court heard.

The two men were neighbours and there seemed to have been a grudge over parking, the court was told.

Tapping, of Main Road, Clydach, received a two-week custodial sentence at Newport Magistrates’ Court on Monday [July 14] after pleading guilty to criminal damage.

He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation and handed a restraining order banning him from contacting his neighbour indefinitely.

Earlier this month, he was jailed for four months for perverting the course of justice at Cardiff Crown Court after calling Mr Elliot’s mechanic to check how much damage had been caused to the Mercedes.

Both terms are to be served concurrently, meaning his overall custodial sentence is four months.

Mr Elliot's firm, BP Motor Bodybuilders and Engineers, provided an assessment of repair costs of £7,397 for the Mercedes, but a Newport firm Tapping used produced an estimation of £400 to polish the car to remove the powder.

Tapping called the Cheltenham garage five times, used a fake name and enquired about the repair costs, the court heard.

He posed as someone who was from “the authorities” and asked for a copy of the invoice, the court was told.

Tapping, also known as Imran Asad and Julian Riley, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice between March 7 and 27.

He appeared before Cardiff Crown Court in a wheelchair after having had what his legal representative Jeffrey Jones described as a “breakdown” due to stress.

Mr Jones stressed that his manner on the phone had been “far from intimidating or threatening” but rather “inquisitive”.

Cardiff Recorder IWL Jones said Tapping had deliberately repeated in perverting the course of justice and taking the law into his own hands.